Hi Readers! I finally finished my Burda 08/2009 Swing Coat which I started more than a month ago. Last week I couldn’t do much sewing after work so I squeezed all the lining sewing to a Saturday late afternoon (until 3am!) and woke up at 9am on Sunday to finish slip stitching the lining in place. To recap, here’s the photo from the Burda magazine which I fell in love with.
The Burda Swing Coat Photo
This is my first coat making project and to take full advantage of the coat making experience I used hair canvas for the shaping and underlined the coat with silk organza as well. I tried documenting the sewing process as much as I can and you can see my previous posts via the links below:
Time to Make a Coat – This has more photos and line drawings of the coat pattern
Swing Coat Progress Report – My muslin mockup and underlining choice
Swing Coat Progress Report No. 2 – Making single welt pockets, bound buttonholes, attaching the hair canvas to the coat front and pad stitching the lapels
Swing Coat Progress Report No. 3 – Pad stitching the collars and putting the main coat pieces together
Last Swing Coat Progress Report – Attaching the collar unit to the coat and stitching the facing pieces
For the lining, I turned the coat inside out and put it on the dress stand. I pinned the lining to the facing and sandwiched an ivory colour single folded bias binding (made with cupro / rayon lining) to form a contrast colour piping.
Pinning the lining to the coat’s wrong side
I think the piping echos with the silk ribbon on the collar and lapels and bridges the colour difference between the lining (also rayon) and the wool tweed. I slip stitched along the turquoise lining catching the layers underneath. The stitches are bigger than I would like in some cases but at 1am Sunday morning I’m not complaining!
Homemade bias binding as piping
Like I did with the coat, I let the lining hang overnight so the bias at the side seams would settle. The lining was smoothed and pinned onto the coat’s hem then trimmed. I did a 1″ deep jump hem throughout and used slip stitching again to hold the hem in place.
The jump hem is about 1″ deep
Lastly – button choices! I have a selection of buttons which could be used for the coat, clockwise from the left are vintage white leather buttons, new glass buttons, pearl like plastic button with a black and gold trim and cream colour bone buttons. I chose the glass buttons in the end as they’re uncommon in ready to wear (probably because they are too easy to break) and they show the bound buttonholes behind.
My button choices
So here’s my finished coat on the dress stand.
The finished coat
Side view of the finished coat
The collar and the silk ribbon trim
The not long enough silk ribbon and bow finish on the facing. You’ll see why I made the bow in my earlier post.
4 glass buttons are used – need to be careful with these!
On Sunday afternoon I managed to sew on the last buttons and wore the coat for an outdoor photo shoot (thanks Mr. L for taking the photos in the cold!). The sky was grey but I was definitely in a good mood to have finished the coat.
My cosy swing coat in a grey winter day
As the coat’s hem is quite wide, it has a lot of swing to it. Having the silk organza lining definitely helped the drape as well.
Back view of the swing coat
On the lining, I would recommend using a thicker fabric as the rayon lining I used is a bit too thin for coat. If I’m going to make a coat or jacket I will definitely used a twill or satin weave lining fabric for more durability and opacity.
Should have used a thicker fabric for the coat lining
While taking these photos two kids walked pass and they were looking at me and Mr. L with much curiosity. Mr. L explained to them that I made this coat and the kids said ‘Awesome!’. How cool is that. Thanks kids!
Coat is quite warm as well
Back view
Now that it’s December I’ve got a few small sewing projects to do for Mr. L and will be making Christmas presents for the family as well. It will be a nice change to do something quick and easy!
